J
E FOUR
THE MICHIGAN DATTY
I
TUESDAY, BETD',PR7,1941
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Ther Michigan Daily
.War Petition Seen As Danger
To Good Educational System
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Edited and managed by students of the University of
Michigan under the authority of the Board in Control
of Student Publications.
Published every morning except Monday during the
University year and Summer Session.
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use for republication of all news dispatches credited to
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rights of republication of all other matters herein also
reserved.
Entered at the Post Office at Ann Arbor, Michigan, as
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CHiCAGO * BOSTON * LOS ANGELES * SAN FRANCISCO
Member, Associated ,Collegiate Press, 1941-42
Editorial Staff
Emile Gel .
Robert Speckhard .
Albert P. Blaustein
David Lachenbruch
Alvin Vann
:Hal Wilson
-Arthur Hill
Janet Hiatt ,
Graces Miller
Virginia Mitchell
Managing Editor
Editorial Director
. . . . . City
Associate
Associate
. . . . Sports
. . Assistant Sports
. . . . Women's
. . Assistant Women's
. . . . Exchange
Editor
Editor
Editor
Editor
Editor
Editor
Editor
Editor
;. Business Staff
Daniel H. Huyett . . Business Manager
James B. Collins , . Associate' Business Manager
Louise Carpenter . .Women's Advertising Manager
Evelyn Wright . Women's Business Manager
NIGHT EDITOR: GEORGE W. SALLADE
British-Russian 'Aid
Peri dAmericanDefense
IN'18 THE SLOGAN WAS "Let's get
the boys 'out of the trenches by
Christmas," but the cry of '41 seems to be "Out
of the army in a year." Both the selectees and
the folks back home are coming out in full
strength for this year's slogan; the men want
to get back to civilian life and/their jobs, and
the folks are just as anxious to see them there
again as the men themselves. Both parties are
very definitely agreed that one year is plenty
in Uncle Sam's armed forces.
What hasn't been grasped, especially by the
folks at home, is that one year isn't enough
to adequately train a ian for the dirty business
of war. Many of the draftees, too, won't admit
that fact even to themselves, because that would
necessarily put them in the uncomfortable pos-
ition of acknowledging their inability to really
fight a real war, if one should come now., While
drilling and lecture instruction has its points,
no man is going to be able to defend himself on
the battlefield with lecture notes or the inner
knowledge that he can execute a right face with
microscopic precision. The army needs realguns.
and ammunition to teach with, not signs or
reasonably accurate wooden facsimiles.
Stories of soldiers who fired a gm while in
uniform for the first time at a shooting gallery,
or used ersatz products are not fiction. The
fact is that the American army is woefully under
equipped. And both army regulars and staff,
men know that without equipment, army train-
ing is forced to be of a secondary nature, and
useless for showing actual wartime conditions.
BUT THE PARADOX is with the folks baek
home. They have revealed themselves as
overwhelmingly in favor of being the arsenal of
democracy-and Rssia. They have'demanded
that all-out aid in the form of war materials
be sent abroad to Britain and Russia so that
those countries may continue their fight against
the "new order." In back of their minds is the
hope and prayer that if we send enough material
over there, our army vron't have to go across
to use the munitions we have shipped.
But you can't send munitions to Britain and
Russia and expect to have them here too. Each
gun that is stamped for overseas service i a gun
that an Amrican soldier might have used to
get his basic training. Each plane tank, round
of ammunition, gasoline tanker, is something
taken away from home defense when it leaves
these shores.
Ameria may be the arsenal of democracy, but
it isn't producing, enough munitions to supply
both the United States and the British-Russian
armies too. When the folks back home cried for
aid 'to Britain they knew that "sacrifices would
have to be iade by every American." Perhaps
they didn't realize then that you can't have your
guns and send them to Europe, too. The major-
ity of them still haven't realized that fact. But
now, they are making their sacrifice, and they
don't like it. Well, they decided that sending
munitions to Britain might keep us out of war.
They agreed that conscription was necessary to
prepare us for any eventuality. Now, they want
their boys home. If they get them now, the
TWO HUNDRED AND THREE University of
Michigan professors and 75 Wayne Univer-
sity professors have signed a petition to Michi-
gan's congressmen seeking an out and out dec-
laration of war by this nation.
That petition in i self means little. Whether
or not we become actively involved in the Euro-
pean war will not depend upon the signatures
of college professrs. There will be no troops
sent abroad because of the names signed to
those pieces of paper. No, it's merely an ex-
pression of opinion, similar to a possible dec-
laration of the isolationist stand by other col-
lege professors.
And yet behind that there is something deep-
er. Something that has little to do with war,
little to do with Fascism or dictatorships: some-
thing that involves a principle of education, the
matter of what our schools should be, what
they should teach our youth.
Now I'm not arguing for isolationism or
intervention here. That's not the point at
issue. What I am arguing is something
deeper, more lasting; something that will
still be argued long after this present war is
remembered only in history.
RECALL, IF YOU WILL, the stand taken by
our schools after World War I. Educators
realized that America had, in a popular phrase,
"been the goat." We had won the war, yet lost.
We paid for it with money that is still in Europe.
And we lost thousands of American lives, mil-
lions of dollars, and caused thousands of other
young Americans to be permanently wounded.
And all, history texts of the Twenties said, for
nothing.
That's what we were taught in school. You
see, educators hadn't felt that way before the
war. They were mature in 1917. They had fa-
vored participation in the war. And after it
was over they realized that we had made a mis-
take, that America had lost out. And so the
tune they sang in 1917 was changed. They be-
gan crying from the school platform that we had
lost; that America should never again become
Europe's goat; that we must remain out of for-
eign wars. You see, they hadn't been schooled
to believe that we must never become involved
abroad nor that we should become involved in
the war. They had thought it out for them-
selves, so it was quite easy for them to change
their minds. Oh, they did it sincerely, as sin-
cerely as man ever did anything. /Ihey believed
what they said, and they taught the youth of
the Twenties to believe it too.
Soon, however, they began changing their
minds. They saw a new menace in Europe,
one greater even than the menace of 1917.
And they cried for war. Their minds, which
had not been formulated like the minds of
those they had taught, in a system of stolid
isolationism, returned to the stand of the
interventionist. You see, they hadn't been
raised to believe that we should never again
be stung in Europe. And they began teach-
Understanding Sought
On Union Question ...
T HERE HAS BEEN a great deal of
controversy both in and out of The
Daily's editorial columns with the past few days
as a result of an editorial on labor unions which
appeared over my name in The Daily last week.
I'll stand behind the views which I expressed
at that time. But rather than accept such de-
nunciatory appellations as "reactionary" and
even "pro-Hitler," I should like to clear up a
few misunderstandings which have been brought
to my attention.
In the first place, I do not believe, as has
been charged, that the answer to our labor
problem lies in the banning of strikes, the disso-
lution of unions or even in compulsory arbitra-
tion. I believe, as I stated before, that any step
toward governmental control of that nature
would also be a step toward fascism and dicta-
torship; and' contrary to the accusations of
*bme of my critics, I am as strongly behind our
American democracy as anyone. 1I also believe
that if the unions are left to themselves, and
intelligent leadership and voting are encouraged
within them, it can only be a question of time
before the racketeering and corruption whicti
does exist will be stamped out.
A second charge is that I would imply that all
union leaders are corrupt or dishonest. Obvious-
ly such a general statement would not only;be
foolish but definitely untrue as well. Far from
that, I believe that the majority of our union
bosses are honest; but I still insist that There
are men in key positions who are sacrificing for
personal gain some of the very labor liberties
which my critics leap to defend. Matthew Woll,
vice-president of the American Federation of
Labor, has stated that much of the blame for
labor's unrest must be laid to those working
within the ranks of labor, and that certain men
are "misusing offices of trust to mislead the
workers for their own political gain." Certainly
all union leaders are not dishonest; but neither
are they all honest, and it is this second group.
that I would depose.
Some will say that I am backtracking-that
I am abandoning all the points I made last week.
I think not. I still stand behind my accusation
that there is a good deal of unnecessary corrup-
Uon among the leaders of many unions, and I
reiterate my recommendation that the workers
open their eyes and rid themselves of these men
who would betray them.
ing in schools once more that we should en-
ter Europe's war.
N THE MEANTIME youth couldn't change
like that. Maybe not you or I, perhaps we
missed a little of that stolid isolationist educa-
tion of the Twenties. But there were those,
thousands of them, whose minds had been mold-
ed with only one mold: Stay out of Europe.
That was all they had heard since birth. And
their minds couldn't change quite so easily as
the mature minds that had changed back in
1917.
Today some educators, sincere meh, are seek-
ing an actual declaration of war by this nation.
Perhaps they are right, perhaps not. Certainly
I'm not the one to say. But still I don't think
it's the way things should be. They have changed
again. They will teach that in their classes.
Unconsciously, perhaps, history professors will
be pro-British. Try as they may to be unbiased,
political science professors will point out the
one way to save democracy-their way.
The educator has changed once more.
O YOU SEE the point I'm driving at? I'm
not crying that the youth of today is the lost
generation. Far from it. I'm not advocating the
suppression of this nation's freedoms, nor saying
that the educator should'be muzzled. And I'm
not seeking a path of isolationism. x
I'm merely trying to say that the names of
278 educators attached to a petition that has
been widely publicized in the newspapers isn't
the best thing for the schools of today. You and
I look up to those men. They are thinkers, with
a reutation as wise men. And they are advo-
cating war ....
Many young people will unconsciously accept
that as dogma. They won't think about it. But
because it is taught in our schools, they will ac-
cept it. Just as many before them accepted iso-
lationism in the Twenties: because it was taught
in the schools.
Perhaps I exaggerate the danger of such
a practice. But as I see it that's not'the pur-
pose of our schools. Young men and young
women are sent to school not to learn WHAT
to think, but to learn HOW to think and the
FACTS upon which to base their ideas. The
school itself; the books upon which it is
based; and the principles it stands for
should be unemotionalized, uncolored. The
school should teach FACTS and EVENTS as
they happen.
THE DANGER of not doing so can, I think,,be
seen today. Those young people who were
taught that we should never enter Europe's
quarrels are today reticent about sending any
aid to England, afraid to support any step that
might mean war for this nation. Today the
same ones that taught them those IDEAS are
caling them traitors. Ten years ago they were
honest isolationists, taught by other isolation-
ists. Today they are radicals, pro-Nazi, danger-
ous to their country.
What about this petition? Well, as I said, it
in itself means nothing. I am not criticizing the
stand of those men nor do I have any desire to
do so. I am not saying that they did not have
the right to do what theydid. But I do say that
for its own sake a nation cannot allow its edu-
cators to bring into the schools ideas bearing
upon international and national politics. The
FACTS can be taught in schools. But the issues
are something to be determined at elections, at
open public discussions, in the editorial and
letter columns of the press, in the halls of Con-
gress. Those are not properties of the class-
rooms. We're paying today for making the big-
gest question of them all a piece of dogma to be
tossed to students 10 years ago. Many of those
students are today opposing the war, possibly
to the detriment of this nation.
NO, let those men think as they will, vote as
they will, talk as they will in private lives.
Let educators be as free as you and I. Let them
think and read with the freedom of other Ameri-
cans. But let them remember, too, that they
have a duty to their country far greater tha
the duty of anyone else: it is for them to teach
our youth, to teach unemotionally, without bias;
to teach HOW to think and not WHAT-.
FOR when a nation loses that ability to think
for itself, when its youth accepts without
thought of its own the dogma of others, then
that nation is on the road to decay.
- Bill Baker
a. p. blausteins
POTPOURRI
WENT TO THE MOVIES last night and saw
next to the worst picture of the year-a
flicker entitled "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Harmon."
Despite the efforts of the Gary Flash (we still
think he was good), "Hyde of Michigan" was still
the worst of the season.
,, *
"Jekyll of Michigan" would be a swell title
for the next flollywood stinkeroo.
* * *
MORE NURSERY RIMES:
A diller, a ditler,
What's wrong with A. Hitler?
What's holding back that man?
He used to win the blitzkrieg way:
-Not on the Five Year Plan.
-* * -
LETTERS
TO THE EDITOR
It Can't Happen Here
To the Editor:
In his editorial on Saturday,
Homer Swander points to the danger
facing America, a barbaric fascism,
and calls for intelligent action on the
part of our youth to combat this
menace. Such action is imperative.
While we are horrified at the crimi-
nal nature of the subjugation of
Europe by Hitlerism and realize the
simple job that the Nazis will have
in extending their domination over
Africa, India and China should Great
Britain and the Soviet Union fall,
this understanding is coupled with a
feeling that America is safe from at-
tack and fascist penetration. This
attitude disregards the real danger
to our country.
America in awar-mad world with-
out any allies, with large fascist
armies massed in Northern Siberia
only three miles from Alaska, en-
dangered by a vast naval fleet and
ship building capacitye arngreater
than our own, would be confronted
with imminent military invasion. If
American youth thinks that the sac-
rifices made today for national de-
fense are large, then picture for a
moment the gigantic armament pro-
gram that would be required in order
to match the military machine of a
Hitlerism flushed with victory and
the- desire. for world domination.!
Ours would become a country of mili-
tarism and regimentation. A Hitler
victory would exact ultimate sacri-
fices in life and wealth from America
that would make our present pro-
gram look like 'chicken feed.''
But an actual military invasion
would not even be necessary. Our
J collection of'native American fascists
are ready to sell us down the river in
the same fashion as the traitorous
Quislings, Lavals and Petains of Eur-
ope. Joe McWilliams, New York
street hoodlum and CHRISTIAN
FRONT organizer, calls openly for
pogroms against the Jews, precisely
the technique of the Nazis. He has
said: "Lindbergh is on our side. We
must not hinder him." (SOCIAL
JUSTICE, July 28). Coughlin, call-
ing for an open Hitler victory, in
the same issue says: "There is little
hope for the world unless the Ger-
man forces can overcome Russia and
successfully invade England by the
end of September." Hitler is his
beacon of hope for the tortured and
oppressed of all countries. Of Lind-
bergh and Wheeler, Coughlin says on
July 17: "These men we applaud and
revere." AMERICA FIRST, in a let-
ter to SOCIAL JUSTICE signed by
Mrs. Wheeler, indicates: "There nev-
er has been any discrimination (by
the committee) against Father
Coughin's, followers." WAIT UNTIL
COLONEL LINDBERGH IS READY
TO TAKE OVER is the password in
American appeasement and fascist
circles.
American youth must support an
all-out aid program to countries
fighting Hitlerism and drown out the
Lindbergh and Wheeler treason with
a mighty movement as the best way
to safeguard the independent and
democratic security of our land.
There is no other way. On the cam-
pus, students can give their answer
by participating in the United Stu-
dent Committees Against Fascism
that are being formed on the cam-
puses of Wayne University, Michigan
State College and the University of
Michigan.
- Harry Stutz, Grad
Headline Error...
To the editor:
- Above the news story concerning
the recent petition to Congress en-
dorsed by 203 faculty members on
our-campus, this headline appeared
in Sunday's Daily: "Wayne and
Michigan Teachers Petition for a
Declaration of War on Germany."
Actually the petition nowhere men-
tions a "declaration of war"; in fact,
the accompanying letter sent to
Michigan's Congressmen urging "to-
tal war on Hitler now" stated in the
first paragraph: ". . . any specific de-
cisions must of course be entrusted
to our national leaders. Whether this
policy involves, for example, a tech-
nical declaration of war is an ines-
sential matter, which may well be left
to the discretion of the Congress and
the President."
Most signers of the petitions would,
I believe, insist that any formal dec-
laration of war at this moment would
be a strategic mistake. What the pe-
tition urged (accurately summarized
in The Daily's news story) is an over-
whelmingly effective effort against
Nazi Germany, "without stint or limit,
. . . until Hitlerism and the menace
it represents is utterly destroyed."
As a one-time cub reporter who
wrote a few headlines for The Daily
of some two decades or more ago, may
I suggest as a more accurate head-
line: "Wayne and Michigan Teachers
Petition for Total War Against Hit-
"I think our stand should be against this bill, Senator-it's
easier to oppose it than to understand it!"
\
DA-ILY OFFCILB LE N
GRIN AND BEAR IT
r'
(i¢1. tChicago T'rie9s, Te.
Reg. L;.& 1Vat OH-. All lUS. Rea.
By Lieli~ty
(Continued from Page 2)
Hall on Thursday, October 9, at 3:00
p.m. to arrange for class sections.
Alan D. Meacham
Algebra Seminar (Math. 315) will
meet today at 3:00 p.m. in 3201 A.H.
Geology 11 Field Trips will start
today at 1:00 p.m. The groups will
meet at the east entrance of the Na-
tural Science Building. Names of
the field instructors for each group
will be posted on the bulletin board
jutside of Room 2054 N.S. Students
must look up their group instructor
before 1:00 p.m.
German Make-up examinations:
All students intending to take make-
ups this semester must report in 204
U.H. sometime this week for consul-
tation.
German 179: Meeting today and
in the future in 16 A.H.
W. A. Reichart
German 207: First regular meeting
in 303 South Wing on Wednesday,
4:00-6:00 p.m. Norman L. Willey
Lectures
Oratorical Association Lecture
Course season tickets are on sale
daily from 10-1; 2-4 at the box office,
Hill Auditorium. Maurice Evans, re-
nowned Shakespearean actor, will
open the course 'Friday evening as
the first of eight distinguished num-
bers to be presented this season.
Single tickets for Mr. Evans' recital
will be on sale Thursday and Friday.
Season tickets for the complete course
will be available through Friday.
The Department of Naval Science
and Tactics offers a series of fifteen
lectures on Naval Subjects to be
presented weekly, commencing to-
night at 7:15 in Room 348 West
Engineering. The course is designed
to present a picture of the Nation's
First Line of Defense, its organiza-
tion, composition, personnel, cus-
toms and operations, and with dis-
cussion of naval law and regulations,
of ship types on offense and de-
fense and of influence and trends
in naval armament. The series is
open to all interested students and
faculty members but is of special in-
terest to officers of the Naval Re-
serve to whom a certificate bf com-
pletion will be issued. Election of
the series may be made at the Naval
R.O.T.C. Headquarters, North Hall,
or at the first lecture.
Events Today
Junior Research Club will meet to-
night at 7:30 in the Amphitheatre of
the Horace H. Rackham School of
Graduate Studies. Program: "Evo-
lution of the Rockies in Northern
Utah," by A. J. Eardley, Dept. of
Geology. "In Southernmost Mexico,"
by N. E. Hartweg, Museum of Zo-
ology.
American Institute of Electrical
Engineers will meet tonight at 8:00
at the Michigan Union. All Blectri-
cal Engineering students, sophomores,
juniors, seniors, and graduates, are
ipvited. Asst. Dean A. H. Lovell will
speak on "Membership in the
A.I.E.E." Refreshments._
organization. All members
quested to be present.
are re-
Members of Wyvern are reminded
to meet with Alumnae Scholars at
4:00 p.m. today in the League Lobby.
Those unavoidably late should pro-
ceed directly to Dean Bacher's home.
Michigan Sailing Club will meet
tonight at 7:30 in the Union. This
meeting is for former members as
well as anyone else interested in sail-'
ing. For room number consult the
Union bulletin board.
The ROTC Drum and Bugle Corp
will meet tonight in the Yost Field
House at 7:30. Please be prompt.
Theater Arts Program Committee
meeting for this afternoon has been
canceled.
Coming Events
Zoology Club will meet in the Am-
phitheater of the Rackham Building
on Thursday, October 9, at 8:00 p.m.
Professor L. R. Dice will discuss
"The Work and Program of the Lab-
oratory of Vertebrate Genetics."
Social gathering in the Assembly
Hall at the rear 'of the Amphitheater.
Please remain to get acquainted.
Zoologists and assistants on the
staffs of the Department of Zoology,
Museum of Zoology, Laboratory of
Vertebrate Genetics, School of For-
estry and Conservation, Institute for
Fisheries Research, and U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Sei'ice, and graduate stu-
dents in zoology are invited. Their
wives are likewise invited.
The Society of Automotive Engin-
eers will hold its first meeting of the
year on Thursday, October 9, at 7:30
p.m. in Kellogg Auditorium in the
new Dental Building. Movies of the
Indianapolis Races and other racing
subjects will be shown. The speaker
will be a starter inthis year's race.
All engineers are invited.
International Center: The program
of the International Center for this
week includes the following:
Tonight, 7:30 p.m. the program of
recorded music to be pr sented at the
Music Hour in the louiige .consists of
the following:
Wagner: Prelude to Tristan and
Isolde.
Mendelssohn: "Italian" Symphony.
Schumann: Piano Concerto in A
Minor (Myra Hess).
7:30 p.m. the Slavic Club will meet
in the Recreation Room,
Thursday: 4-6 p.m. Tea.
7:30. The Polonia Club will meet
in the Recreation Room.
Friday: 8:00. Recreation night.
8:00. French Round Table will meet
in Professor Nelson's office.
Saturday: 8:00. Suomi Club in the
Recreation Room; games in the
Lounge.
The English and Portuguese classes
will begin their work this week. The
hours will be announced later in the
week. Enrollment may still be made
in the Office of the Center.
La Sociedad Hispanica will meet
Thursday, October 9, at 7:30 p.m. in
the Michigan League. All those who
are interested are cordially invited
and old members are urged to be
present.
Seminar in the History of Religious
Sects: A study of the rise and devel-
;